This invention relates to an adjusting device which is used for accurately setting cutting blades in milling tools and which is incorporated in a blade holder component inserted into a groove of a revolving cutter body. The blade holder component has an edge-wise open recess corresponding to the outline of a cutting blade which, when inserted, is supported by the wall portions defining the recess. The blade holder component further has a portion which is elastically deformable by a screw and by means of which the position of the cutting blade may be adjusted in the recess.
For obtaining a satisfactorily machined surface with a milling tool carrying a plurality of cutting blades, it is indispensable to install and adjust the cutting blades in such a manner that their cutting edges have a highly accurate axial cutting position.
British Patent No. 958,725 discloses an adjusting device for cutting blades of the above type in which the holder component which is provided with a recess for receiving the cutting blades is displaceable with respect to the revolving cutter body by means of a screw member mounted in the latter. With this component, however, only a coarse adjustment of the axial cutting position of the cutting edges is possible. It is a particular disadvantage of this arrangement that for correcting the axial cutting position, the holder component has to be shifted in the groove of the revolving cutter body.
In the German Laid-Open Application (Offenlegungsschrift) No. 2,043,453, there is disclosed a displaceable adjusting device for cutting blades of milling tools. The device is incorporated in a plane-parallel blade holder component having on one side an integral elastic tongue which is bounded by two slots that extend from the blade-receiving recess in the holder component and which, at the frontal side, projects into the recess. The tongue serves as a support face for the inserted cutting blade and can be swung, by means of a threaded pin which traverses one of the slots, about its root in an elastic manner, whereby the distance between the location of support and the milling plane is changed. This holder component has the disadvantage that two slots have to be provided and that at the area of the tongue which is pressed by the very small threaded pin, undesired deformations may appear, particularly in case of certain broad finishing blades operating under significant axial cutting pressure. Consequently, an exact position for the cutting blades cannot be unequivocally determined. Further, in adjusting devices of this type, quench cracking may occur at the base of the slots as a result of stresses generated during heat treatment.